'elca' Tagged Posts
The Gifts of Grief
The Gifts of Grief By Becky Rische In meetings of our Spirit in the Hills’ Mental Health Ministry committee, we speak often of how we might help those grieving among our community. Grief groups, counseling resource listings, Stephen Ministers can be made available to offer healthy coping skills amid the great sea of loss that comes with being human. I’ve…
Stones Shouting, Palm & Garment Sunday, Notre Dame, Resurrection
As Jesus enters Jerusalem in the humble parade, without the trappings of a usual royal or Roman procession, the “whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had seen, saying ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the…
Extravagant Love
For the second week in a row (Luke 15, John 12), we had a Gospel text that mentions an extravagant sharing of love (a party thrown for a younger son thought dead, and this week Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with costly perfume). For the second week in a row there was someone (the older brother, Judas) so wrapped up in their narrow, self-centered mode of thinking and…
The Economics of Abundance
We’re steeped in a model of scarcity. The idea that something is scarce begins from a place of limits. There’s only so much of something to go around – time, money, water, food, land, hours of work to be divvied among employees, etc. In this mode of scarcity, for someone or some group to get more means there is less to go around, and potentially less for me, or for you.…
Another Year to Bear Fruit
Associate Professor of Preaching at Luther Seminary, Karoline Lewis, said this about last Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 13:1-9), “The world cannot afford our barrenness any longer.” I think she appropriately captures the urgency of Jesus’ parable about a fig tree for which the gardener convinces the landowner to give one more year to bear fruit. Time is of…
Nothing Stops Jesus’ Mission
Trusting in God
